Category Archives: Hosting

AutoSSL is introduced by cPanel/WHM since version 54 which aids in adding and managing SSL certificates provided by Let’s Encrypt and cPanel. AutoSSL fully automates the the installation and renewal of free SSL certificates which are valid for 3 months.

Hostdepartment provides its Linux unlimited hosting users and the Linux Reseller account holders with the AutoSSL feature. AutoSSL is enabled by default so the SSL certificates and HTTPS for all your sites are enabled by default. You can also purchase our low-cost SSL certificates which are valid for 1 year or more if you are in need for a dedicated SSL provider for as low as $11.95 per year.

The SSL certificates are automatically installed for all domains and sub domains for your sites hosted in the cPanel in addition to the below aliases:

mail.domain.com

webmail.domain.com

cpanel.domain.com

whm.domain.com

If you are using one of the above aliases for accessing your cPanel, webmail or WHM, you can have a HTTPS connection in order to login to the control panel or webmail or WHM.

Do you have a cPanel hosting or reseller account with us and do not see HTTPS for your site? You can contact us by live chat or email or through a support request form.

Cloud Computing is nothing but using and accessing applications through internet. In addition to configuration and manipulation of applications we can also store data online. Usually in cloud computing you do not need to install any software for any application to run or work in your PC, this is what makes a difference which avoids platform dependency issues. This is how Cloud computing is making applications mobile and collaborative.

Behind Cloud Computing platform there are 4 technologies working which makes Cloud Computing flexible and reliable. The Cloud Computing technologies are :

1. Virtualization :Virtualization is a technique where in an instance of application that is present physically is allowed to be shared with many computers and organizations. This is done by allocating a name to that physical resource and when requested, it is directed using a pointer. By this the customers can use as if they own the instance without actually having it physically.

2. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) : SOA is a technique that allows customers to use applications as a service to access other applications irrespective of technology, product etc. Due to this functionality the data exchange between different applications is possible without any additional programming and installation.

3. Grid Computing : This is a technique where computers from different locations in the world work together for a common objective. Grid Computing makes complex tasks simple and into small pieces,these pieces are distributed among CPUs present in the grid.

4. Utility Computing : This techniques is a kind of pay and use which is more applicable in managing IT services. It provides the service to the customers and charge them according to the usage instead of flat price.

Cloud Computing Architecture

The basic cloud computing architecture is divided into two main parts.

1.Front End : The front end is the client part. It consists of interfaces and applications which are necessary to access other applications. The front end is connected to back end via internet. For example web browsers are front ends.

Cloud Infrastructure

Hypervisor : It is a low level program that allows physical resources to share among customers. This acts as a Virtual Machine Manager.

Network : It helps the cloud services in connecting through internet and also the customers can change network route and protocol as per their requirement.

Server : It helps in computation and also provides services like resource allocation and deallocation, monitoring and many more.

Storage : Cloud computing makes storage very reliable as it uses file distributed system. In this system if the data couldn’t be fetched from one file then it fetches from other files.

Deployment Software : It helps in deploying and integrating applications on the cloud.

Deployment Models

There are four kinds of deployment models

Public Cloud Model : In this model all (general public) can access applications and services. Many providers exist, in which some of them are Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc.

Advantages:

It is cost effective

It is flexible

It is reliable

It is location Independent

It is highly scalable

Disadvantages:

It has low security as it is available in public and may be attacked by virus or DDoS.

It is less customizable than other clouds.

Private Cloud Model : In this model only people of particular organization can access the applications and services. It can also be managed internally or by a third party.

Advantages:

As it is accessible within an organisation it has high security and privacy.

You can have more control over the cloud

Disadvantages:

Restricted area

High pricing

Limited scalability

Hybrid Cloud Model : This model is the combination of public and private Cloud models. In this you can perform non critical activities using public cloud and critical activities using private cloud.

Advantages:

Scalability

Flexibility

Cost efficient

Disadvantages:

There may be security issues.

Infrastructural Dependency

Community Cloud Model : In this model a group of organizations can use the same cloud ie., here the infrastructure is shared by a group of organizations and can be maintained internally or with the help of third party.

Advantages:

Cost effective

Disadvantages:

Security

Cloud Service Models

There are 3 basic service models

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Model : This model offers access to physical resources like physical and virtual machines, data storage. Virtual Machines are pre installed as an operating system and they allow to store a specific data in different locations and also computing resources can be easily scaled up and down. It offers disk storage, local area network , load balancers, IP addresses, software bundles etc. This model also allows the cloud provider to locate infrastructure over the internet. IaaS helps in controlling the computing resources via administrative access to virtual machines. There are also some issues along with the benefits and the issues are compatibility with legacy security vulnerabilities, virtual machine sprawl etc.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) Model : This model acts as a run time environment and allow to develop and deploy tools required for the applications. It has a special feature that helps non developers to create web applications. This also offers API and development tools required to develop an application. The benefits of this model are low cost of ownership and scalable solutions. But the disadvantage is, in PaaS the consumer’s browser has to maintain reliable and secure connections to the provider systems. There is also a lack of probability between PaaS clouds.

Software as a Service (SaaS) Model : In this model a software is deployed on hosted service and is accessible through internet. It allows to provide software application to the users. Billing and Invoicing System,customer relationship management (CRM) applications, Help Desk Applications are some of SaaS applications. The software’s license is available based on usage or subscription. They are cost effective and requires less maintenance . In this multiple users can share an instance and is not required to code functionality of each user. Scalability, efficiency, performance are the benefits of SaaS. The issues with this model are Lack of portability between SaaS clouds and browser based risks.

Cloud Storage

The cloud storage helps in saving data offline, which is maintained by a third party. The storage devices are classified into two:

Block Storage Devices : Raw storage is offered to the clients and allows to create volumes using raw storage.

File Storage Devices : In this storage is in the form of NAS(Network Attached Storage). Here clients are offered the storage in the form of files.

What is Cloud Hosting?

Cloud computing offers hosting services called cloud hosting. In cloud hosting websites are hosted on virtual server and when the information is required, the files are pulled from a network of physical web server and depending on the service requirement, files are fetched. There is also a facility in cloud hosting that you can pay based on your usage and avoid payment for unused.

How is Cloud Hosting different from Traditional Hosting?

The traditional hosting normally are four different types of hosting services, they are shared hosting,VPS hosting, dedicated hosting and grid hosting. When comparing these hosting services with cloud hosting you will know the difference between cloud and traditional hosting.

When comparing cloud hosting with shared hosting we find that in shared hosting the probability of down time is more compared to cloud hosting.

When comparing cloud hosting with VPS hosting we find that VPS servers are less efficient that cloud servers as it fetches files from one server only where as cloud fetches files from multiple servers when required.

When comparing cloud hosting with dedicated hosting we find that in dedicated hosting, servers don’t run on full capacity and are very expensive compared to cloud hosting.

When comparing cloud hosting with grid hosting we find that grid hosting is same as cloud hosting but the difference lies in the processing procedure of completing a huge task.

Advantages:

As you don’t have to maintain separate physical servers for every application and service, it is cost effective.

The data storage is almost unlimited.

As your data will be stored in the cloud it is easy to recover, than when stored in any other device.

As software will be installed automatically when needed you don’t have install manually or upgrade it.

It is easy to access as you can get your information from anywhere in the world, if once registered.

Disadvantages:

As it is a new upcoming technology there might be some technical issues, in which some of them can be solved and some cannot.

Security is major problem.

It may be prone to attacks as files will be fetched from different servers. If one server is attacked automatically whole network is attacked.

Conclusion:

Like every technology has pros and cons, cloud hosting too has. It depends on your requirements and budget, based on which you have to choose the right hosting for your website as choosing right hosting is very important and difficult too because it really matters for your business.

The DNS (Domain Name System) technology manages the websites domains names .A DNS Server is like a phone directory for internet i.e., it provides same service to the internet. When you type the domain name in the browser, the browser connects to the DNS server and checks for the IP address to which the domain name is registered and then displays the Website.

Private DNS servers:

Most of the DNS servers are private DNS servers. These servers allows you to have your own hosting services and can have accounts on your name.Private DNS servers are available for reseler, shared, cloud Hosting and dedicated users. These servers provide service only to those who own and configures them. For example XYZ and ABC have their own private servers, XYZ cannot use ABC servers and viceversa.

Public DNS servers:

Some of the companies provide free DNS servers which are available on net and these are called as public DNS servers. They provide service to who ever request them. Google, ScrubIt, dnsadvantage, OpenDNS these are the companies which provide public DNS servers.

1. Google

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

2. ScrubIt Public DNS server address:

67.138.54.100
207.225.209.66

3. dnsadvantage free DNS servers:

156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

4. OpenDNS

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Why is it important?

Generally it is really hard to remember numbers than names, remembering IP addresses of all the sites is highly impossible. This DNS server helps you in connecting the site’s domain name with its IP address.

For instance you want to open host department site, you don’t have to know its IP address you can just type host department in the browser and it will automatically get connected to its IP address 69.164.246.43. It is not at all possible to open a website with its name without DNS technology unless you know its IP address.

How does it work?

DNS Servers are arranged in hierarchy and they communicate with the help of a private network protocol. The servers that are placed at the top level are called as root servers. There are 13 root servers, these store all the internet domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. These severs are maintained by different agencies. Out of these 13 root servers 10 are situated in United States, 1 in Japan , 1 in Sweden and 1 in United Kingdom. Only these 13 servers store all the information and other servers which are at the low level of hierarchy,store information of certain departments or pieces of the whole existing database. These servers are maintained by Internet Service Providers. In DNS networking your web browser acts as a client and sends a request to your ISP’s DNS server and then the following process is followed.

First when a user types a domain name in the browser say www.hostdepartment.com, the computer first checks the local DNS cache if it already has the website’s IP address (if already that website has been visited by the computer). If the name doesn’t match with the name then it performs a DNS query to get the IP address.

If the information is not available locally then your computer sends a request to your ISP’s DNS server. These servers are recursive DNS servers and they are provided with their own caches and mostly the process end here and the information is received by the browser.

In case if the information is not available then the request is sent to the next level servers that is to root name servers. These root servers don’t have the answer but they can direct you in a way where you can find the IP address of the domain name.

The root servers reads the domain name www.hostdepartment.com and direct you to the TLD servers(Top Level Domain) for .com. Each TLD .com, .net, .org and so on has their own servers. These severs will not have the information but they directly direct us to the server which contains the information.

The TLD servers checks the domain name www.hostdepartment.com and directs you to the .com specific server called authoritative servers. These servers will have all the information about the domain with .com, these information are stored in records. There are different types of records each record consists of different information. For instance if you want to know the address of a particular domain then it will check for the address record.

The ISP’s recursive DNS server retrieves the information from the authoritative server and stores in the local DNS cache. When someone else requests for the same site then it directly checks in cache and send the information to the browser instead of going through all the process again.

The record stored in cache have an expiry time, if the domain record expires then recursive DNS server requests for a copy so that the information is not out-dated.The recursive then sends the information to the computer, the computer stores the address in its cache and then sends address to the browser which makes a connection to the web server and opens the website. All these steps takes place in just milliseconds of time.

Someday when your business extends from smaller region to all over the world then your business website will be viewed by people all over the world. When you had a small business and your site was hosted at only one place that was fine but now, when it is viewed by people across seas do you think your site will be fast? The answer is NO, because as area increases the distance to be traveled by the files and folders of your site increases which obviously increases the page loading time,latency and sometimes due to routing issues those files may not reach its point and your website may not be displayed. For this there is a solution too and it is CDN(Content Delivery Network).

What is CDN?

CDN(Content Delivery Network) is a network placed in different parts of the world which contains files of the website. When a website is requested instead of travelling miles, nearest network would be approached and website will be loaded fast and also routing issues will be avoided. For example an Indian based website is accessed some where in new york and the site is also hosted in New Jersey, instead of travelling all the distance from India to new york, the site’s file will be transferred from new jersey to new york avoiding all the routing and other issues. It is like servers holding your files across the globe , reachable to all the people around the world and makes sure that your website is loaded fast and these servers are called “edge servers”.

How it works?

The working of a CDN under goes following steps:

When a browser sends a request for a domain name, that is a DNS request is made.

The server which is handling DNS requests will check for the domain name and sends back the IP address for the edge server which is closer to the area from where the request has been made.

These Edge Servers are proxy caches similar to browser caches. When a request comes to the edge server it checks for the cache and see if the content is present or not.

If the content is present and cache is not expired, the content will be displayed directly from the edge server.

If the content is not present then the edge server makes a request to the origin server. The origin server is the true server of the website and is capable of providing the information available in CDN.

As soon as the origin server sends the content, the edge server stores info in a cache based http header of response and also display the information to the browser.

Once again when your request, if the cache is not expired the content will be directly displayed from edge servers rather than fetching content from origin server.

Origin Server and Edge Server:

The Edge servers just responds to the request and displays accordingly but the origin servers are being runned by technologies like java, .net or any other and hence any changes can be done in the origin server unlike edge servers are just having a copy of data present it origin server and cannot be changed. CDN is just a cache, if the data is always fetched from the origin server then there is no value for CDN. When an edge server makes a request to origin server then there is no value of CDN there and instead it costs more and takes longer time.This is the reason why all the java script,CSS, image files are served from data as they don’t change frequently.

How to setup?

No matter what ever CDN you are looking for, there are mainly 5steps common in setting up CDN. They are:

Sign Up:

If you have been recommended some site for CDN, just go to that site and sign up for their service. In our case we prefer and suggest Cloudflare, so just get into its site and sign up.

Getting Files into the CDN:

Mostly all the web page assets like JavaScript,CSS,images should come from CDN as they are not changed frequently, only HTML pages come from your web host, that is origin server. It is not that easy to to get files into CDN but cloudflare makes it easy,just you need to give your urls and you will have an option to choose that description that describes your site and it will be done automatically.

Decide your url names:

When we provide the url names at the time of entering file to CDN they change once added in CDN. For example if xyz.com/css/home.css was you css file name, after adding in CDN it will change to gf455633jhk/home.css and this doesn’t look nice. So you can change them to cdn.xyz.com/home.css.

Make sure that right files are called:

You can check this through wordpress or CMS. You can just ask the CMS to swap the files using caching systems.

Testing:

You can test your site fro different locations by using webpagetest.org .

Why CloudFlare?

Cloudflare helps in protecting and acceleration your online website. It automatically optimizes the delivery of web page and helps your site to load faster. Before your page displays, the cloufare filters bots and other atackers before they attack your website. It is also very user friendly i.e., comfortable in changing the settings and easy to understand. It also provides many other features. To know more about Cloudflare Click Here: CloudFlare Overview

Benefits of CDN:

Loading time is faster.

Gives better performance.

Gives a better user experience.

Improves site ranking.

Protection against surge in traffic.

Protection against Dos.

Conclusion:

The importance of CDN will grow day by day as it plays a vital part in the internet. Even now many companies are trying to make advancement in the edge servers and provide the users fastest loading experience.Having a good knowledge about CDN and how they work helps in giving users a better experience of the website.

It is an operating system assembled under the model of open source software development and mostly used for server purpose. It supports a dozen of programming languages like C,C++,JAVA,PHP and many more.

Advantages:

Low cost: You need not spend much money to obtain license as its softwares come from GNU General Public License. You can also download high quality software whenever you want, free of cost and you need not worry that your program may stop due to trail version. You can also install it in many computers without paying.

Performance: Linux provides high performance on workstations and on networks. It also helps in making old computers sufficient and usable again and also can handle many users at a time.

Stability: You don’t have to reboot periodically to maintain performance. It can handle large number of users and does not hang up or slow down due to memory issues. Continuous up time upto a year or so is common.

Flexibility: It is used for high performance applications, desktop applications and embedded applications. You can save disk space by installing components required for a particular use. You can restrict specific computers instead of all computers.

Security: The security aspect of the linux is very strong as it is very secure and it is less prominent to viruses, even if there is an attack there would be immediate step taken by the developers all over the world to resolve it.

Choice: Choice is one of the greatest advantage of Linux. It gives the power to control every aspect of the operating system. Main features that you have control is look and feel of desktop by Windows Manager and kernel.

Disadvantages:

Understanding: To become familiar with Linux you need to have a lot of patience and desire to read and explore about it.

Software: Linux has a limited selection of available softwares.

Ease: Even though Linux has improved a lot in ease of use but windows is much easier.

Hardware: Linux doesnot support many hardware devices.

Windows Operating System:

It is family of operating system from Microsoft. If programming languages such as Visual Basic.net, ASP.net, Visual C#, Visual C++ are used then it is better to opt windows hosting.

Advantages:

Ease: Microsoft Windows has made much advancement and changes which made it easy to use the operating system. Even though it is not the easiest, it is easier than linux.

Software: Since there are more number of Microsoft users there are more software programs, games and utilities for windows. All most all games are compatible to windows, some CPU intensive and graphic intensive games are also supported.

Hardware: All hardware manufacturers will support Microsoft windows. Due to large number of Microsoft users and broader driver, all the hardware devices are supported.

Front Page Extension: When using a popular web design program having windows hosting makes it lot more easier. You don’t have to worry if it supported or not.

Development: If you plan to develop windows based applications then windows platform is most suggested as linux does not support windows applications.

Disadvantage:

Price: Microsoftwindows is costly compared to Linux as each license costs between $50.00-$100.00.

Security: When compared to linux it is much more prone to viruses and other attacks.

Reliability: It needs to be rebooted periodically else there is a possibility of hang up of the system.

Software Cost: Even though the windows have softwares,games for free most of the programs will cost more than $200.

Conclusion: Both Windows and Linux Hosting have advantages and disadvantages. Based on your requirements you need to opt which hosting suits better.